Comments by NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue may be a bid to pressure the state into a deal with the Saints, a key official in the issue said Wednesday.
Tim Coulon, chairman of the panel that oversees the Superdome, responded to comments by Tagliabue, who said the status of professional football in Louisiana appears no better than it was a year ago, and possibly worse.

The commissioner, whose views were published in the Los Angeles Times earlier this week, weighed in as state and Saints officials are in the early stages of trying to hammer out a new financial deal.

"It is probably another tactic to apply pressure to the state," Coulon said Wednesday. "Certainly it is not going to change the governor's approach, and that is to present a proposal to the Saints early in the (new) year."